For me it depends - certain pets I have gone after a specific breed as I want to use them in battles, but mostly they are just a number in my collection and unlikely to be used much so I don't worry about the breed there

I've been collecting mini pets since I started wow at the beginning of BC. Personally it has been about the collection and rarity rather than a specific breed. I don't really PvP but have been somewhat forced into it to get the stunted dire horn to complete my collection.And I retired from many years of raiding and only now do they add pets to raids!!!My goal one day is to get all pets as rares and maybe hopefully level them all. But not fussed on breed

I didn't learn about breeds until around January, so I already had a good sized collection and had taken down most of the tamers. It was at this horrible point that I discovered my favorite pet was the "wrong" breed, as were a couple of others who had been my chief tamer battlers. Those three pets will never be replaced with the "better" breed because they've earned their spots as my favorites, and replacing them would be a betrayal.

I used a P/B Emerald Proto Drake Whelp for a while until I found the P/P, and the difference was big enough to be noticed. So for pets I know I'm going to be using, especially tamer two man teams, having the right breed is important enough for me to put in the extra effort to find it. Even if trying to find the right breed of certain pets makes me want to tear my hair out.

Now, I look for a rare first, but if I find the desired breed in uncommon, I'll capture and hold onto it. I'll keep looking for the desired breed in rare, but if I get an extra stone for that family before the rare comes along, I'll stone the uncommon. I used a stone for my P/P Spawn of Onyxia, but found the rare P/P Emperor Crab in the wild. I keep a list of "wrong" breed rares and "right" breed uncommons I'm hoping to upgrade/replace eventually.

I personally only care about rarity. My goal is collecting every pet in rare quality. Then I just kinda make due with what I've got for battling. Besides I feel like I've got a pretty solid level 25 team going right now so I'd rather spend my time finding other rares than other breeds of a pet I've already got...

I don't worry about breed at all, so when i go to PvP, i look at my level 25s and pick who I think is the best for the family at that level. When you're using type advantage, breed doesnt really matter unless its H/H since that does affect how long it will last.

As some others have said, I go for pet first, then rarity (my goal is all rare, all level 25)... then, if it is a pet that I would use in pet battles, I start looking for the right breed.

I have certain pets that I would never replace, even though they are the "wrong" breed. For example: Rory (one of my 2 Black Lambs) was my very first wild caught rare pet, so even though his breed is less than optimal, he is staying in my collection.

My collection of family specific battle stones is huge, I have multiples of everything except beast stones (of which I still need 5), so if I catch a new wild pet of any other family, I would go for the pet first, then the breed and just stone it once I have the breed I want. I find that having so many stones takes a lot of the stress out of pet hunting as I don't need to worry about finding a rare.

I focused solely on rarity first. Once I had all rares, then I did start paying some attention to breeds (luckily I managed to snag things like a speed Wisp along the way). I think I went back and retamed maybe a total of 3 or 4 pets for breed type after that. Pretty satisfied with my menagarie so I don't anticipate messing with it further to "perfect" it.

Plus I do have some pets that were gifted to me that are considered substandard breeds but because they were gifts I won't be changing them out for something "better".

If I want to use it in battle against NPC trainers or PVP then I'll focus on breed and if I want to name them something gender specific I'll try to find the right gendered breed number but the letter breed wouldn't matter. But if I'm just getting the pet to round out my collection I just focus on rarity. I want blue 25s of all pets eventually. :3

1) get any breed, color, level of a pet (get anything)2) get rare copy, then release the old one that I got (make it blue)3) get breed I want if I happen to be battling in the area and see one that might be a better fit, and it is blue